Vine wins mountain stage in Andorra, Vingegaard loses Spanish Vuelta lead

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PAL, Andorra (AP) — Australian cyclist Jay Vine pulled off a solo climb to win the mountainous sixth stage of the Spanish Vuelta on Thursday while Jonas Vingegaard lost his overall lead.

Vine, of UAE Emirates, dropped the rest of a small breakaway group and stayed in front all the way up the final 10 kilometers (six miles) to the category-one summit finish at the Pal in Andorra. He crossed the line in four hours, 12 minutes.

“This was my chance to get away and there is no funny business, it was mano a mano,” said Vine, who lives in Andorra like many professional cyclists.

It was a third stage win for Vine at the Spanish grand tour. He had a pair of wins in 2022.

Torstein Traeen of Norway took the red leader’s jersey from Vingegaard after he finished the stage second for his Bahrain-Victorious team.

Vingegaard, the overall favorite thanks to his two Tour de France titles, finished in the group of race favorites around four minutes later. That meant Vingegaard fell to fifth in the general classification at 2 minutes, 33 seconds back.

João Almeida, also of UAE Emirates, was seven seconds behind Vingegaard in the overall standings. Almeida was left as his team’s leader after Juan Ayuso faded on the final climb and fell more than 10 minutes back.

Thursday’s stage was the first mountain stage of this edition. The 170-kilometer (105-mile) ride started in Olot, Spain and finished in the principality of Andorra in the Pyrenees.

On Friday, riders face a 188-kilometer (116-mile) mountain trek from Andorra to Cerler, Spain.

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